January 11 7 AE (military calendar)January 11 2029 AC (global calendar)Major General Tanya Rex

  I was just finishing up a few things when my aide says someone else’s aide would like to speak with me. I let them in and they saluted me. I return it “take a seat” They remove their cap and sit in perfect form. “How can I help you…”

  I let the question hang in the air “Lieutenant Shepherd mam” they reply. I nod for them to continue “I am the aide for Yorm I believe you're familiar with him” I pretend it takes me a second to recognize the name “he’s a drill instructor right” Shepherd nods.

  “Seeing as you're in prime he’d be very grateful if his top graduate could stop by and make a speech for his test css” I don’t hide the confusion on my face “Isn’t that normally saved for the end not the beginning”

  He nods “This entire css is unusual as half immigrants and fully half of them are from the Russian Federation, he also knows you're incredibly busy so even if it was in the middle of the css he'd make time for you”

  I didn’t realize he thought so highly of me. I respect him I don’t resent him for anything he did when I was in basic he was just doing his job to perfection. “Sure I’ll see if I have time to stop by, it’s not going to be anything grand or very long be sure to warn him. I’ll have my aide send over the details”

  Shepherd nods “I’m sure he’ll be grateful just to have you scare them a little” he got up and in perfect motion walked out. I’m sure Yorm scolds him if his about-face isn’t perfect to the nanometer.

  My aide sends another message to me. I read it and groan. It’s from Parks, first, it read that she has buried the medical scans and records that I had bullet fragments behind the orbital socket. I asked this mostly because it would just be a pain to expin how the fragments got there without breaking anything.

  The next part is the interesting part. She sent her personal thoughts on the procedure we had to undergo for prolonged exposure to null gee. It was mostly two parts. They would gene crack us again and mostly disable the ability to break down muscles. This is a little dangerous as the heart is a muscle and could grow too much on the inside killing the person.

  Supposedly they accounted for this. This part is mostly to prevent the body from reciming mass amounts of muscle due to it ‘not being used’ this way we could spend a year in space and drop onto Earth with basically no problems.

  The second part is reinforcing our skeleton and disabling the ability to de-densify it and prevent any and all calcium leeching. This is done by repcing the compact tissue with a carbon fiber extrusion made by our own body. How they managed to figure this out is beyond me. Basically, the bones are supposed to be somewhere around fifty times stronger in angur forces compression, and stretching forces.

  I read through the papers and looked at who made them. In each, they had a redacted name. I decide to use my connections and sent Bliss a message asking about it. All I got back is “It’s who you think it is” which is good enough for me.

  I sign off on the procedures. I stretch and get up to walk over to Coles's desk. We chat for a bit and check on the ships. They are getting the armor ptes now so we can board them about the same time all the medical shit is done. I also went over it with Cole who agreed to it. Not that I needed his permission.

  I check with my aide to see what the schedule is looking like. Nothing important tomorrow. I tentatively scheduled the day for Yorm. Early the next day I head over to chat with him before he gets to work.

  “Tanya how good of you to make it” he greets me warmly. “Yorm it’s been a while I see you still feed off despair” he ughs “It’s better than living off fear like you do” We both ugh some more and I point my finger at him “hey now fear is way more fun, I have a video one of my guys took that you’ll love”

  I tossed him the video of me covered in napalm. More ughter fills his office. “My god to see what you’ve grown into and to think you nearly dropped out… I have to say you're the finest soldier I’ve had the pleasure to train”

  I smile “It’s all thanks to your training. Anyway I’ve been told you’d like me to give a speech” he nods “I figured I’d do it before css but I’ll hover around as long as I can today” he stands and cps his hands “excellent we were about to start”

  We exit his office and I watch him get to work. I pick out a few familiar faces and send Bliss a message asking if Yorm can really push his current css. She replies “Send it” I’ll tell Yorm ter. I’m impressed as many cadets actually get through this first part with enough energy to stay standing.

  I opt for a puma to get me to the lecture hall because well I’m not the one in basic and I run enough while getting shot at anyway. I give my little speech and as I walk away I drop my request ssh order to Yorm telling him to really push these guys.

  He starts off by asking “Bliss gave you permission for that didn’t she” I nod “Yep I saw a few familiar faces and figured you’d need to really work them to break ‘em. I’m thinking rubber bullets like we used to do”

  He quietly nods his head for a moment “You know I have been thinking we’ve made basic easier over the years, I’ll redesign it after your css” I smile widely “So have you seen the reports on the lizards” I make a mental note about checking on fünfer ter.

  He shakes his head so I tell him about them and how they reacted to riding on the boats. We finish our chat and I decide to leave. I head over to where they are keeping the lizards having my aide come get me in a puma.

  I check more messages and see that we’ve been sted for the operations. I check the schedule and move a few people around. Griffin and the rest of Archangel along with zombie Bate I moved to be first. If I at least have my special operations team good to go then that gives us some options to still work.

  We arrive at the enclosure and I go inside. About half the lizards bolt away the rest freeze save for fünfer who approaches me. I reach out my hand and he lowers his head so I can pat it. He really doesn’t like Griffin but he seems to like me. “Why are you here” he asks. I shrug “I had some spare time and wanted to check on you”

  He cocks his head and then after a moment sits down. “How do you like it here,” I ask. “We like it more than the old pce we get real food here” I nod my head “I like the food here too” I think thanks to the new transtion software and throat microphone. “Your speech has improved a little”

  He nods “We like talking to the others” I look at the rest of them still keeping their distance “All your friends seem scared of me” For the first time he looks around “Many saw you fight” I’m about to reply when my comm beeps and I have a message. “Sorry I have to leave, work needs me”

  I wave and leave. “To misriah armory” We speed off. Seems everyone has some new shit to show off. By the time we arrive, Griffin is waiting but no one else. “Ready to watch some tell and maybe show” I ask him. He shrugs “It’ll probably be all show with these guys”

  We walk up to a checkpoint and they check our identification and then call in to see if we’re expected. After a few minutes, the guard waves us through.

  Misriah proves itself more professional than the st guys I inspected as the owner is waiting for us with several others. The owner steps forward “Major General Rex, Major Seren I believe you will be most impressed by what we have for you today. Please follow me”

  I stifle a chuckle, I completely forgot Griffin's st name because no one uses it. It reminds me of how odd it is. I mean his st name is literally Seren like the gas. I gnce at him and he rolls his eyes. We follow the entourage through the halls. If I remember correctly they purposefully designed this access point to act as a tour on the way to the testing hangar.

  We walk past different shops working on a different project in each. Griffin speaks up as we walk through “I got to use your guy's new sub-machine gun recently” The owner I’m bnking on his name right now. I’m certain his name isn’t Misriah. He raises an eyebrow “What did you think? I prefer feedback from people who actually use our equipment than b tests”

  Griffin smiles “I quite enjoyed it. The recoil was very manageable” he abruptly stops and looks at me. I know what he’s asking but it’s not an issue so I shrug. He continues “It worked great in null gee. I'm also really happy with the munition it had plenty of stopping power and didn’t pop the can”

  The owner, cave Johnson theres his name, is absolutely beaming “I'm gd to hear that major. I really think you will like this even more though” he opens the test hanger and we all enter.

  There are two manikins holding up two suits and a table with a bunch of equipment. Johnson speaks up “I’ll let Zeke the head of our void division take over” Zeke gives a slight bow “The suits used by the major were just prototypes. His mission helped us iron out a few issues. As such they should be slimmed down enough for ground use as well”

  I raise my eyebrows but let him continue. Every suit is fully powered to cope with the weight but testing shows there is still a strength amplification. In the helmet, we added an extra camera in the back so the user doesn’t need to move their head. We have also addressed some other issues. One being the rigid circuit boards. We managed to create a semi-solid semiconductor to repce the silicon boards”

  He picks up something from the table. After we examine it recognizing it as a comm board he then bends it easily then puts power through it. It works just fine. Griffin chuckles a little “wish I had that about a month sooner” Zeke smiles “You're why we developed it. Anyway there are some other minor changes we will send you the full list but the other major change with the armor is the wrist armor”

  He waves us to another section of the table. On it are a few screens and other devices. Is that a grappling hook? “These are interchangeable on the armor, the user can leave it as normal armor, put rger ptes on, or these other devices. I would recommend this one here for void operations” he holds up the grapple.

  I finally say something “What’s that rated to” he seems to look at something in his gsses “Three thousand pounds from a drop” I nod. That should be plenty to not snap on someone if they are trying to stop a fall.

  Zeke looks at us “Would you like to test it out” Behind the armor in the rest of the hanger it shifts to a mix of a shoot house and an obstacle course. “We have weapons loaded with training rounds if you wish” Griffin and I grin. I fucking love Misriah.

  A short while ter we are both fully geared and at opposing ends of the course. A buzzer sounds and signals the start. I somewhat regret not having my rifle but I wouldn’t be worth my salt if I couldn’t use basically any gun we had. I have a shotgun on my back, an M2 SMG, and another prototype weapon.

  They called it the individual combat weapon system or the ICWS. This specific one was the a1 ICWS. It’s a bullpup and has a thirty-round magazine and a round dispy. One worrying thing is no built-in sights. It’s all through a link to the user’s helmet.

  I have the SMG on a thigh mag holster and the ICWS in hand. On my left wrist, I have a grapple and on the right a double-barrel shotgun. It intrigued me so why not. I jog with my gun up into the course and begin to navigate it.

  I get to the ‘forest’ a mass grouping of polls that wave back and forth with plenty of space to move between but also sturdy enough and wide enough to jump between. I spotted a way on to deeper inside but I move at a sensible pace as I know these often have traps inside.

  I step over a trip wire connected to fsh-bangs. With the helmet, they would do no more than just give me away. I pause and go back to pick them up. That done I pick up my pace. I reach the weird structure in the middle of the ‘forest’ and quickly ascend. Then I begin to jump from one to another occasionally using micro thrusts to adjust my course.

  I reach the end and still haven’t seen Griffin so I throw one of the two fshes at the bottom of my pole. This is all a mind game. How many bluffs will Griffin see through? We both know we’d never actually trip one so it going off has to be on purpose which means a trap. So he’d probably avoid it. Unless that’s supposed to lead him to the real trap. Continue to infinity.

  I swear I spot movement in the urban-like area. Of course he’d want to make it a brawl. Luckily I grabbed a few smoke grenades. Normally we just use something simir to tear gas as smoke grenades but this is a training. I look up and gauge the distance to the ceiling. Should be close enough.

  I aim the grapple and hope they were right about it and fire. The rails unch it and it sinks firmly. I lock the spool and give it a tug. Good enough. I put the ICWS on my back and grab the m2 then jump off. The wire pulls taught and I swing over a razor wire field. Probably filled with concussion mines.

  I guess the right moment to detach the hook and real it back in while tossing a few smoke’s through a window. I crash through and catch a waiting griffin. I use my thrusters to avoid his gunfire while trying to aim mine onto point.

  Mine clicks empty so I get a great idea. I throw it at him. He seems ready and it just bounces off his face. I fire my grapple into the wall behind him and yank myself towards him with help from the thrusters. This actually catches him by surprise as I tackle him to the ground.

  We wrestle for a moment then with dread I realize why I won our match. He had another m2 and it was pointing at my gut I quickly let go and punch his helmet, triggering one of the barrels and painting the side of the helmet red, and locking the entire armor.

  Through a private channel, he groans “fuck this didn’t go to pn” I ugh “You almost had me” For the next few hours we fuck around trying different things in the armor. What finally stops us is I spot my aide. This brings griffins fist into my visor as we were practicing some hand-to-hand. It sends me to the ground nding head first at a weird angle.

  There is a crunch as I nd but I just grunt. My entire body goes numb then feels like it’s TV static before I regain actual feeling. I roll and get up pulling off the helmet. I head over to my aid who is waiting with Cave Johnson. “Johnson how many do you have ready”

  He smiles having not heard the snap of bones “We have thirty ready and can have the rest by the end of the week” I nod “I’ll take them. Fantastic work as always I’ll send a list of who needs theirs fitted now” my aid clears their throat “mam I have two pressing issues you need to address one is your sted operation is within the hour and the other is captain general Bliss is waiting on a line for you”

  I frown a little “fuck ok. Griffin you drive” I point to my aid “Rey the squads who have priority for armor to Misriah” me and griffin leave and I answer the call from Bliss. “Done having fun? good because I have something actually fun if you want it” I smile “Hit me” she responds “How many do you have ready for vacuum operations”

  I chuckle a little “I’ll have the strike teams ready tomorrow Misriah is fitting their suits” I feel a smile in her voice when she responds “Good get yourself one as well I need a force recon at Oceanus Procelrum Have fun you’ll leave when your armor is ready”

  I turn to Griffin with a huge smile “Ready to go to Luna and blow some shit up” I cackle and crank the radio which happens to be pying something by Dave.